Florida State University

Florida State University began its work with the Hamilton Fish Institute research partnership with a two-year intervention in three middle schools located in inner urban areas in North Florida, South Florida and Central Florida. At each site, at-risk eighth grade students were selected for participation in an internship program and were paired with mentors at the internship sites. The students met weekly with a teacher who oversaw their participation. As the students moved on to the ninth grade in high school, they continued participation in the internship program. As attrition occurred, the slots were filled with new target students in the ninth grade.

At the conclusion of the study, analysis of the findings suggested that mentored students, as compared to control group students, had significant reductions in total number and days of suspensions, days of sanction, and infractions committed on school property at the conclusion of the eighth grade and at the end of the second year of the intervention.

Currently, FSU has developed a partnership with a developmental school in Tallahassee, Florida, where they are developing an original curriculum for middle and high school students in which the students examine violence in their school in order to help reduce violence among students, using social-science inquiry methods. At the conclusion of the first year, the students present policy recommendations to school administrators. This study is integrated into the students’ regular curriculum. In the second year, the students will implement the policies and evaluate the effectiveness of their chosen intervention. There is currently no off-the-shelf curriculum for secondary schools for students to conduct an applied social-science project such as this.

In addition, the FSU research team has developed a comprehensive survey instrument, the Adolescent Index for School Safety (AISS) administered to students that assess multiple dimensions of student-on-student victimization, or SSV.

The FSU team plans ongoing dissemination through presentations at academic conferences and publications in academic journals, The FSU team also itends to disseminate the curriculum and the Adolescent Index for School Safety for use by others.

Project Management

Principal Investigator
Robert Gutierrez, Ph.D.

Co-Principal Investigator & Project Manager
Isabelle Potts